Campfire Interactive vs Microsoft Project comparison

"Campfire Interactive is going to be a huge success for Gentherm."

"I like the visibility of global opportunities. Prior to using Campfire Interactive, we would conduct Excel-based reporting and sales meetings with everyone bringing their information. Now, we can check it daily, look at the reports daily, and see what is coming into the system and what needs to be managed."

"The most important feature from Campfire Interactive is its ability to work together with other different applications that we use in our company, and I think that's one of the best features it has."

"I appreciate the flexibility of the company more than any specific software feature. I have worked with SAP and other software providers before, and since it is still a smaller company, there is a very personal exchange. If we have a simple need that does not require coding, the company is willing to make changes overnight or even within hours. They are truly flexible and customer-oriented."

"Campfire Interactive’s ability to manage data through business processes and workflows for your organization is good."

"Campfire Interactive has saved us time because the data that we are collecting is the same."

"I appreciate that Campfire Interactive has deep integration with SAP, which helps a lot."

"The feature I appreciate the most about Campfire Interactive is probably the forecasting module, the way it links to IHS for the IHS forecast."

"Microsoft Project's integrated timeline is tied to the project plan almost seamlessly, and you add whatever action item or milestone you choose. All you have to do is set up a column and click on the timeline. It will automatically put it in there and allow you to choose the type, whether it's a bar or if it's a milestone, just pointing out that single milestone"

"They now have MS project Online and they have two levels, so it's easier to access what you need and to choose specifically what you'll use. You can start at a lower level, for example, and be more cost-effective and move up if it suits you."

"Being able to get a milestone schedule or a breakdown out of it is valuable. It can integrate into Visio, which is helpful."

"The most valuable features of Microsoft Project are you can create critical paths pretty easily, and you can import from an Excel spreadsheet to your task list as you create it during your working sessions with your team."

"The ability to break down project phases is most valuable. Being able to align the tasks and reporting with project milestones and progress is also valuable."

"The solution is stable."

"The daily tracker is valuable."

"It is very stable. I haven't had any kind of issues with it. It is also very scalable."

"One aspect that could be simplified with Campfire Interactive is the process of entering opportunities into the portal. Currently, if we receive a quotation for 20 parts, we can enter one opportunity in our homegrown system that allows us to list all 20 parts within that single opportunity, but Campfire Interactive requires creating separate opportunities for each part."

"There are times when we go to execute reports from their system, and the data does not generate as expected."

"It could be a little bit more user-friendly."

"I recently discussed with them the need for better KPI measurements in the automotive world. A big KPI in the automotive world is the bookings of the future years, and we measure that not in annual revenue but in the lifetime of any given vehicle."

"They occasionally became overwhelmed, leading to slowdowns due to the busy workforce."

"Because we use a multitude of modules, some of the interactions from one module to the other are not as seamless or fluid."

"The areas of improvement for Campfire Interactive are in cycle plan management, forward model and backlog planning, user interface and usability, records management, price bump chart flexibility, and creation and facilitation of reports management."

"Because Campfire Interactive is seen as a standalone system, I do not think that it would be scalable at this point within my company."

"The Gantt set needs to be improved. The grid lines needs to be more interactive."

"I have no idea about the cost because it is a corporate decision."

"Project availability and speed could always be improved."

"The solution is a basic tool that does not give you analytical insights. It does not have any AI capabilities which can also help to plan."

"The solution is currently a bit slow and can be faster."

"It needs to be more comprehensive."

"There are some things about it that I've always hated, and they haven't really changed them. It makes a lot of assumptions. It is also difficult to put business rules in it. You have to de-link it from the consecutive task if you don't want to do a What-If analysis, and sometimes, if you forget to do that, it changes everything. It is a pain in the neck to undo it. I would also like to see better integration with graphics. The graphics are primitive, and they need some major work. I would like to have the ability to do some small macros within the project for fuzzy logic. For example, if you're not sure how long a task takes, you can get the earliest guess. It is very time and manpower intensive to keep it up to date. You need to constantly update it. You will find that you are spending more time working on the Microsoft Project file rather than working on your project. I don't want to devote a person to just do that. That's silly. You can link it to some more modern applications so that it is dynamic when a real-time resource schedule changes, but it is not at all dynamic. It is only as dynamic as the person using it. It would be nice if we could plug it in real time for each project, subproject, or task. If something is going on, I want to see it in real time. Sometimes we have international clients, and they don't use the same calendar. They have a Thursday and Friday weekend, and we have a Saturday and Sunday weekend. I can change it in Microsoft Project, but I would like to be able to do it globally. There may be a way to do it, but I just haven't figured it out yet. I would like to be able to specify globally what weekend we want or what we want to call a weekend. We might have a project that works seven days a week. Some tasks are automated outside, like manufacturing processes. Embedding external processes is almost impossible because, in a practical sense, we don't have people who can do a lot of programming here, and also the interface of Microsoft Project is not the easiest because a lot of it is proprietary. It would be nice if we can link different tasks to external sources of inputs and outputs so that we could integrate them with a master project plan and see in real time what's going on. For example, you are manufacturing a batch of a chemical, and I have to rely on if a customer is making some type of complex chemical. Their system does not interfere with ours. We have to get the outputs from their system and enter them manually into the project to see the effect. That takes time. If you're talking about hours, you going to spend three to four hours, but there is the risk of getting it wrong or making a mistake. On tight projects, every minute counts. I would like to see some control system interfaces with Microsoft Project. A modern machine shop has a lot of computer numerical control (CNC) computers. In fact, virtually all machining is done with a CNC machine. Even 3D additive manufacturing is made with CNC. That data can go to a computer, and that computer can spit it out to a project so that you can see in real time whether you are going to finish a day ahead. If you had to finish a day ahead, you could talk to the systems' software, which can say that if I have this machine working for another hour and this one for one hour or less, I would be able to meet the schedule. It can then make those changes, but it can't do that. Everything needs to be done manually, which takes more time, and there's a risk of mistakes. It requires smarter automation and more machine learning. There is no machine learning capability in Microsoft Project. It just doesn't exist. That's why I say it is only suitable for small-sized to medium-sized companies and small projects. Most people don't have the problems that I have. I don't have them all the time, but when I have them, they're big. When you're bidding on a project that has to get done, you find yourself spending most of the time working on Microsoft Project, whereas you should be spending these hours managing the project. Thinking on a bigger scale, I would like better integration with Office, Visio, and Access. If you make a change in one, it should cascade to others and vice versa. It doesn't do that. It is not a dynamic program. I would like to see a dynamic program or at least the capability of being dynamic, that is, even if it is close to real time where it outputs to a module, and the module then talks to real-time things. The real-time data goes back into the module, and the module updates the project plan. Such dynamic capability would be nice. It may not be real time, but it is at least close. I would like to be able to link directly to the data in an Excel spreadsheet so that I don't have to keep going back and forth updating it. I don't want to have to create a dynamic link library. Whenever I change the data in Excel, it should update in Visio or PowerPoint. If I'm doing a pie chart or any kind of graphic, I don't want to constantly update my graphics. I want to link them together, and I want them updated automatically. I know it is a wishful thing. They don't make major changes every time they come out with a new version. They don't fix the issue. They just add a few features."

"It's hard to reach technical people to get the help you need."

"It's fairly priced."

"We had a negotiation with them back in March of this year to extend our contract for 1 year. They were willing to work with us to negotiate different terms and a different cost of production. They were asking for a certain percentage increase, and we said that was not acceptable. They were willing to settle on a different number."

"Campfire Interactive is on the expensive side, with approximately $100,000 to $120,000 in expenses."

"Compared to everything else I have seen, it is very fair."

"I don't know the full scope of our subscriptions for all the modules, but from what I've seen before, it seems fairly expensive. The high cost may drive some potential clients to consider developing a homegrown solution internally if they have a competent finance group."

"I am not involved with this."

"You only need a Team's license in order to use Microsoft Project within Teams, which is very helpful."

"You do not have to invest much in terms of configuring this solution to suit your needs."

"Licensing costs vary depending on the user volume. The pricing is good, I'd rate it four out of five."

"The license fees for the professional version, which is estimated to be approximately $1,600, and the standard version, which is approximately $1,200, may be considered expensive by some users. This is something that could be improved to make the platform more accessible to a wider audience."

"The product is not expensive. My company has opted for an annual subscription."

"It probably was $30 per license on a monthly basis. There is no additional fee."

"I am not aware of any additional costs apart from the standard licensing fees of the solution."